Corporate and Investment Banking and WFP have announced the launch of the WFP Emergency Network, a ground-breaking partnership between the private sector and WFP, the world’s largest humanitarian organisation and the UN’s logistics coordinator in times of disaster as well as its lead agency in the fight against hunger.

Citigroup also announced that its Foundation would grant WFP $3.2 million over two years to increase the agency’s capability to assess food security in crisis-prone countries ahead of disaster, a critical priority for WFP.

“In times of disaster – whether it’s a tsunami, or an earthquake, or a hurricane – the private sector provides aid because it’s the right thing to do,” said Michael Klein, Co-President of Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking.

Strategic role

“Moreover, it's clear that the private sector can play a strategic role in advancing WFP’s ability to save lives by leveraging our business continuity expertise and our excess capacity globally in advance of disaster."

"We are delighted,” Mr. Klein continued, “to help WFP enhance its ability to prepare for disaster through a grant from the Citigroup Foundation. The grant will fund a strategic WFP initiative called SENAC (Strengthening Emergency Needs Assessment Capacity) that ultimately will enable all of us to target where disasters may strike next and to do everything we can to prevent them or otherwise minimise their impact to the people on the ground, typically the poorest of the poor.”

SENAC is a three-year initiative to strengthen WFP’s capacity to conduct robust and impartial emergency needs assessment when a disaster occurs.

Unprecedented challenge

The grant underscores the crucial need for accurate information when a crisis strikes – including who is suffering from hunger, where the people live, and how many there are.

Having such information pre-crisis permits quicker and more efficient humanitarian intervention. The grant also will be used to help set up systems to monitor any changes in people’s ability to feed themselves.

“As the rate of emergencies increases, WFP is faced with an unprecedented challenge of developing a faster and more efficient response to potential crises worldwide,” said Amer Daoudi, Associate Director of the Operations and Transport Division at WFP Headquarters in Rome.

Enhanced preparedness

“Thanks to Citigroup, the launch of The Emergency Network, and the funding of our SENAC project, we will enhance our preparedness enormously.”

Last year during the World Economic Forum, Citigroup and WFP committed to creating a mechanism for effective private sector contributions to help mitigate the impact of disasters.

The Emergency Network unveiled today enables companies to deliver pre-planned contributions – such as trucks, telecommunications equipment, food, and other needed items – to augment WFP’s disaster response ahead of time.

Corporate partners

Companies that donate in advance will not only contribute to WFP’s first response to disasters, but the use of their donations will be tracked, tax-deductible when appropriate, and communicated to recipients.

Citigroup and WFP are in discussions with a number of companies about joining the WFP Emergency Network, and expect to announce members shortly.

WFP has a number of corporate partners, including TNT, the Dutch logistics firm, Boston Consulting Group, Unilever and Vodafone Group Foundation.

Partnership and commitment

Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking entered into a partnership with WFP in 2005, when the company committed to leveraging its global footprint, local relationships, and ability to respond quickly in emergencies to help WFP on the ground during disasters.

The partnership and commitment built upon the assistance Citigroup provided to the WFP during the 2004 south Asian tsunami, when Citigroup staff in Asia helped speed up dramatically the WFP’s efforts to establish a base of operations in Bangkok for the recovery effort by providing office space, computers, and important local contacts for needed resources.

Since the tsunami, Citigroup has aided WFP in its efforts in several disasters, including in the Philippines (2005 earthquake) and in the United States (Hurricane Katrina).

Christiane Berthiaume
WFP/Geneva
Tel: +41.79.285.7304
christiane.berthiaume

Jeffrey Rowland
WFP/Rome
Tel: + 39.348.31.88.101
jeffrey.rowland@wfp.org